MATCH 2 - SAT 25 FEBRUARY

ELLESMERE PORT RANGERS 2 - 1 WAVERTON BEES

With a number of boys away for half term, the Bees only had 4 available (Thomas, Ben, Yazan & Oliver) for this fixture, so were grateful to welcome Marcus and Joseph from the Wasps to the team.

EP Rangers applied some early pressure and were rewarded with a long range effort sneaking into the bottom corner within the first 5 mins of the game.  In the second quarter, the boys dug deep, and with Ben making a number of excellent saves (at least 3-4), Oliver drew us level with a deflected shot that wrong footed their goalkeeper.

1-1 at half time, Waverton could have edged ahead in the third quarter, and after some dogged defending by the team, Thomas cleared the ball thought to Yazan who was clear on goal with only the keeper to beat...but he hit the ball too well and it thundered over the bar.

In the final quarter, tiredness really showed (the suggestion of bringing Jaffa Cakes for half time could be a good one!!), and in contrast to EP who had made substitutions every 7minutes, the boys struggled to get out of their own half.  After watching a great strike by EP hit the inside of the post and somehow not find itself into the Waverton net, we thought we might hold out for the draw.  Unfortunately, our positivity was short lived and after a few more miss-haps at the back, it was 2-1 to EP Rangers.

The crowd urged the boys on and although a couple of late chance were created, it was not to be (on this occasion).

Man of the match given to Thomas for his positional play and consistent tackling at the back.

We look forward to having a full team back for next week's game (and maybe some Jaffa Cakes)...

Our progress against this team, one of the best in our league, shows how far we've come though. Results against EP Ranger are 6-1 loss, 4-2 loss and today 2-1 loss so by our reckoning we should win 2-1 next time we play!

 

 

MATCH 1 - SAT 25 FEBRUARY

WAVERTON ARROWS 1 - 7 CHESTER NOMADS

Following the excitement of last weeks win the team started with the same spirit following a strong warm up. In the first period good groups formed with Oliver, George and Frankie working really well in defence and Rafa, Ellis and Christopher teaming up well at the front, this meant that the Nomads got very little opportunity in the Arrow's half and the Arrows got the lions share of the shooting chances. With Christopher and Rafa both coming close and George - picked out brilliantly by Ellis from a corner - nearly finding the bottom corner, but for a deflection off his own team mate.

In the second period the Arrow's continued the pressure, though the Nomad's did start to get more into the game. After good periods of play, set up by midfield interceptions from Coby and then Eric, Ellis came close at the near post - and very nearly following up on a ball spilled by the Nomads keeper.

 

Soon after Frankie scored a wonderful opener from a tight angle and it felt like the Arrow's may have the upper hand. However, moments later the Nomad's equalised from a corner - with some sloppy defending and perhaps a spot of good fortune with the shot being deflected. 1 - 1 at half time.

In the 3rd and 4th period concentration really fell away quickly and the Nomad's took full advantage scoring 3 goals in quick succession in both. The Arrow's started to stand back from the tackle and lacked the 'Monsters' that were on show on the first half (and away to the Nomad's earlier in the season). One real highlight that was worthy of recognition was the Nomad's final goal, scored by the only girl on the pitch and fired into the top corner from a tight angle across the face of goal. Really great effort.

Despite the result the team were in high spirits after the final whistle as both they and the coaches took a lot of positives from the first half - with plenty to build upon. Concentration will follow.

MATCH REPORT - SAT 18 FEBRUARY

BEES & ARROWS 2 - 0 ELLESMERE PORT JETS

A wonderful win from a scratch team made up in equal measure from depleted Bee's and Arrow's squads. Despite being completely new to each other the lads played as a really strong unit with standout defending right the way through the match to add a clean sheet to the win. A great game for the spectators as well, late in the 4th quarter some parents could barely watch whilst others had the mobile phones out to record the result for posterity! 

The first quarter was a cagey affair - understandable given the team had not played together before - but both teams came close. Waverton's first of 4 keepers - Yazan - starting what would become a long string of great saves in the game.

 

In the second quarter the heat started to rise and tackles started to fly in all over the park - George, Thomas, Ellis and Christopher working especially hard in their own half. Great long clearances from the second keeper of the day - Oliver - rattled Ellesmere Port creating chances for Yazan and Rafa before George took advantage, scoring late from close range and through the keepers legs.

 

In the third quarter (and after some much needed half time orange......flavoured Jaffa cakes) the game started to get stretched, with real end to end football thrilling the crowd. The third goalkeeper - Christopher - made a string of really brave saves clearing off the line several times - he was certainly aided by some close quarter touchline coaching, and also some excellent defending from Coby, Ellis and Thomas. It started to feel as though Waverton needed a second goal to secure the victory but when Yazan hit the post it felt like it may never come. However soon after Yazan again shot - from a corner and at a very tight angle - and found the top corner of the net.

 

In the final quarter it was one way traffic with Ellesmere Port pushing for goals but again great defending kept them out - George (4th in goal) continued the superhuman effort between the posts.

 

No-one worked harder during the game than Ellis, both he and the team improved in each of the 3 quarters played, as they got better at following their forward passes and then later including a tough tackle at the end. The crowd were willing a 3rd goal and in the dying moments Ellis' endeavour put him through 1 on 1 with the keeper......a cruel bobble preventing him hitting the target - it deserved a goal but certainly demonstrated the potential with Ellis and across the team for future games.

Thanks to the parents for their great support it certainly was a draining experience for all!

MATCH REPORT 2 - SAT 11 FEBRUARY

WAVERTON BEES 4 - 1 CHESTER NOMADS COLTS

A good win this morning as the boys came back from 0-1 down in the final two quarters. The small pitch and Nomads playing three across the back made for a scrappy and congested game but the boys did manage to string some moves together and we improved as the game went on.

Nomads scored against the run of play after Samuel accidently threw the ball to their striker from his goal-kick! A few of our goalies today had some issues with re-starts so we will go back to basics in training on this - until we find a full-time keeper!

After that Nomads 'parked the bus' Mourinho style and other than one or two breaks the Bees dominated the match but some good defending and saves from Nomads kept them ahead going into the third quarter.

Finally we scored with Thomas following up and firing low into the net for his first goal for the club! It was well deserved and shortly after we were 2-1 up after Nomads scored an unlucky own goal.

In the final quarter we kept up the pressure. Firstly Henry did brilliantly to chest down a high ball before turning and volleying into the roof of the net. Henry then followed up and finished well again to take his tally to 10 goals from midfield and give him the MOTM award this week.

Comparing today against the performance last week against Blacon it seems the boys may be suited to more space than we can offer at the 4G. We have good runners in the team and today the pitch looked very congested.

Rob will check the Waverton Primary school pitch condition after half-term and perhaps we should get back to grass and play a bigger pitch size head of moving to 7-side next season...

Well done boys.  

MATCH REPORT 1 - SAT 11 FEBRUARY

Waverton Arrows 0 - 8 Blacon Youth

 

Some great players for Blacon turned this game with at least one of their goals being scored from a speculative drive from within their own half! Their number 2 especially impressed with some meandering runs from the back to the Waverton by-line - we were all disappointed that he didn't get a goal for himself. 

Good performances from within the Waverton team - Frankie especially improving in the take - and getting them in earlier as well preventing the pressure building. Freddie also made some great tackles and also some good runs - there were times when, with a little more confidence, he could have taken the ball beyond the last defender and make a chance for himself. There was some brave goalkeeping also: Guy made a great saves in the first half, Marcus and Eric in the second. The best being Eric's goal line clearance - with the help of Frankie's face..

Each of the 4 x10 minute periods contained chances for Waverton but each was lost by a score line of 2-0 (8-0 overall). Rafa came close on many occasions but failed to hit the target - this will be an area of focus going forward. Coby made a good break towards the end of the game - but it was Christopher who impressed the most - and was man of the match - with several great passages of dribbling, most notable was one which took the ball around 3 Blacon defenders and created a shooting chance - after having won the ball with a great midfield tackle.

Nick

 

MATCH REPORT 2 - SAT 4 FEBRUARY

BLACON YOUTH 0 - 11 WAVERTON BEES

An emphatic win, against a Blacon team who are new to the league, showed how much the boys have listened and have improved. We looked really well organised against a team who are a couple of months behind us in their development.

The most pleasing thing today was that all the boys were full of running and put in 110% in every challenge. When we won the ball our decision making to run or pass was perfect.

Even better than that was Isaac, Yazan, Thomas and Samuels' contributions throughout the whole game. We've come to expect high level performances from George, Oliver, Henry and Ben but today the whole squad played brilliantly.

We went in 0-1 up after the first quarter with Samuel scoring to the bottom corner. The game, against Blacon's strongest 7, was excellent and it was a shame they made so many substitutions in the 2nd quarter.

In the second quarter we completely dominated with Samuel completing his hat-trick first from finishing a corner and then cleverly deflecting a Yazan shot! Ben then scored a wonder goal (echoes of Dalian Atkinson for Villa!) after he picked up the ball in his own half, beat 3 players, before cutting in to bury one into the corner. Samuel and Ben (2 more) completed a 2nd quarter rout!

The third quarter was slightly more even but Yazan scored two good finishes and Henry grabbed his eighth of the season with a great shot to the corner.

The gamed ended 0-11 with goal-scorers Ben (4), Samuel (4), Yazan (2) and Henry (1).

MOTM was shared between George who proved that the big pitch just means there is even more ground to cover (!!) and Samuel who stormed back to early season form with a combative performance and some goal hanging that Gary Lineker would be proud of.

Thomas and Oliver as our main defenders and Isaac who covered from midfield can be proud of their clean sheet!

Well done. By far the best we've played so far.

Rob & Chris.

MATCH REPORT 1 - SAT 4 FEBRUARY

SAUGHALL 10 - 1 WAVERTON ARROWS

 

A scoreline that didn't really tell the story of the game. Waverton were 3-0 down before they really got going in the game but for the next 25minutes played really well, during that 25minute period the scoreline was 2-1 to Saughall but Waverton created far more chances with many turning into shots on goal. In the last 10minutes the focus dropped and we lost concentration across the whole of the field - with Saughall scoring 5 good quality goals - but most of them came from unchallenged runs through our defence.

So let's focus on the 25minute period. Ellis listened carefully to the coaches’ advice at 3-0 and converted that into excellent effort on the field, both in defence and attack. At the end of the first quarter he came close to scoring an opening goal for Waverton.

In the second quarter Ellis, Coby, Christopher and Rafa all came close with some really good positions taken up - in space - by Waverton players from corners and thrown ins. Tackles also started to improve - with a notable crunching tackle executed by Eric. Both Ellis and Frankie appearing at both ends of the pitch getting tackles in. It was just a single breakaway goal from Saughall that separated the teams in this second period.

In the third quarter Coby and Guy started proceedings with great tackles but a 20 yard drive from Saughall saw them stretch their lead to 5-0. What was noted was the way players were starting to look up from the ball to pick out a pass - Christopher was notably doing this, even when under pressure from the opposition. Waverton really had the best of the third quarter and towards the end came close on 4 occasions (Rafa twice and Eric & Ellis once each) before finding the net in the dying seconds through Rafa - made by him finding great space from a throw in.

In the final 10 minutes, changes for both teams seemed to really effect Waverton's momentum and concentration dropped allowing a very skilful set of Saughall strikers to put 5 goals away in the blink of an eye.

Well done to the Waverton team - especially for that 25min period!

 

Nick & Graham